


(Don’t) Live by the Rules

by Moons-and-Glassware (PorcelainCas)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 20:42:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5600173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PorcelainCas/pseuds/Moons-and-Glassware
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>I understand if you can't talk to me again. </i>
  <br/>
  <i>And if you live by the rules of "It's over", </i>
  <br/>
  <i>Then I'm sure that that makes sense.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Don’t) Live by the Rules

**Author's Note:**

> Summary is from Dido's "White Flag". [known to shippers as the "I will go down with this ship" song.]
> 
> I wasn't going to write this but this song came on during my shift at work and I was assaulted with general shipping feels while trying to be professional. Listen to it if you haven't!
> 
> Written as a new years gift. I was going to write a chaptered one for Christmas...but that kind of got away from me. Here is a mini fic instead.

Will wasn’t sure if he could believe it.

As he was going through his messy notebook in preparation for school once the winter break was over, a piece of paper had slipped out. He had picked it up and read it, and now he was wondering if it would have been better if he hadn’t read the note at all.

Notebook forgotten, Will grabbed his laptop and opened it to his last online conversation with his best friend Nico.

The timestamp was still about two weeks ago – the last day of school before the break. Will hadn’t understood why Nico had stopped responding after that, but now everything was clicking together. He sighed, running his hand through his hair, a turmoil of angry feelings warring inside of his chest. _Dammit_. How had he not seen the note until now? And when exactly had Nico had the chance to slip it in his notebook?

He cast his eyes to where his backpack laid haphazardly half-opened on his bedroom floor; it hadn’t been touched since that fateful last day of school’s first term. He bit his lip, staring down at the note that Nico had written and trying to discern what his friend was trying to convey to him in so little words.

_Hi Will,_

_Meet me afterschool in the fields. I have something important to tell you._

_Nico_

Certainly it was important enough to make Nico decide to ignore him for the next weeks. (The lack of replies from Nico was disheartening – added with the fact that ‘seen by Nico’ always appeared within minutes of sending the messages.) A part of him that wasn’t in tune with the current mood of things soared: _Maybe he wanted to tell you that he feels the same_ …

No. Will shook that thought out of his head. That was not possible. Nico had never responded to his poor attempts at flirtations with anything except a blank stare and a straightforward answer. He had given up a while ago: he’d rather still be friends with Nico and nothing else than risking four years of friendship for some lousy feelings. He’d seen Nico scoff at other couples, claiming that love was ephemeral and fleeting. (Not his exact words, just Will’s poetic rendition of the verbatim.)

He thought about messaging Nico but decided against it, knowing that Nico wouldn’t reply anyway. If anything were to be resolved, it would be done tomorrow.

 

Nico was waiting at the usual intersection where they walked to school the next morning, despite having not talked to Will at all for the past weeks. He greeted Will normally like nothing out of the ordinary had happened in the past few weeks, and it left Will questioning whether the whole thing with the note and the silent treatment was real or just a figment of his imagination.

However, he was reminded of the truth when he reached his hand down into his jacket pocket and felt the crinkle of the paper underneath. He gripped onto it tightly, afraid that it would somehow disappear. “Nico…,” he began hesitantly, pausing in his steps. Nico stopped too, turning his body to face Will’s and looking straight into his eyes in a way that sucked the breath out of him.

Will forced himself to maintain eye contact. “This whole thing is an elephant in the room situation. I could write poetry about it.”

Nico’s nose crinkled. “Your haikus again?”

“No, jeez! Those are my dad’s – anyways, I mean sonnets. The William Shakespeare kind.” He left that allusion obvious enough that even Nico would understand the romantic connotations from his words. Feeling a little braver, he pulled the note out of his pocket, watching as Nico’s eyes fell on it. His expression didn’t betray any emotion, leaving Will to guess at nothing. “I found this yesterday.”

Nico grimaced. “So that’s why you didn’t show up.” Before Will had the time to feel relieved and agree to that conclusion, Nico continued. “I guess you had other things to do. It’s fine.” The comment was offhand and light, but Will knew Nico well enough to understand that he was feeling upset. It was obvious that the important thing that Nico wanted to tell him was significant to him, and his feelings took a blow when Will didn’t show up. He could already guess that Nico had probably waited fruitless hours for him in the cold until the sun had long sunk.

“I’m sorry,” he automatically apologized after he was assaulted with that sad image. Nico shifted his weight on his feet, eyes dropping to the ground. “I forgot to look through it – I swear I wasn’t ignoring you.”

“No, it’s nothing,” Nico said, words insistent but volume and tone in a mutter. “And I’m sorry I ignored you too – I’m not mad. I was just…busy.” He turned around quickly and was taking another step again.

“Wait.” Will took a step forward and reached to hold onto Nico’s hand before he could think. The warmth of the other boy’s palm in the winter chill sent an electric shock into his body’s core, but he didn’t drop his hand.

Nico slowly turned to face him, and Will thought it was the perfect moment to recite obscure romantic poetry, but then he discovered he was at a blank and would have to rely on his own words. “I’m sorry I didn’t meet you that day, but I would have if I’d seen it.” Before Nico could attempt to divert his words in another direction, he asked, “What were you going to tell me? I’m here, and we’re alone right now. You can tell me.”

Nico looked down at their clasped hands, and Will thought that maybe the other boy was uncomfortable with it and was about to let go. But then Nico squeezed his hand in a way that Will thought was a little too intimate for a supposedly platonic relationship, but he wasn’t going to stop it.

“I was just going to say that I…may have feelings for you, as much as I’ve openly despised romance… And I’d like to try it with you,” Nico managed to say half sheepish and half restless, eyes flicking up to Will and down at their hands and then back at him again to gauge his expression.

Will immediately swooped forward to claim Nico’s lips with a quick peck. When he pulled away, he could see the startled look in Nico’s eyes, and he grinned.

“Is that a yes or were you indulging me?” Nico asked, still dazed but still managing to snark at Will the way only Nico could.

“That’s a yes,” Will said, still holding onto Nico’s hand. “And I kind of want to show off our new status in school right now,” he admitted.

A smile made its’ way onto Nico’s lips at Will’s words. “Exhibitionist,” he said as the two of them began to walk down their usual path again.

With the wintry air, warm hand in his own, and the gleam of sunlit snow in the backdrop, Will could definitely write a sonnet about this.

**Author's Note:**

> Is poet!WIll a thing or what? I feel like that's a nice thing. :))
> 
> Kudos + comments are great <3  
> Happy new year!


End file.
